Tag: crony capitalism

They fight for taxpayer subsidies for the rich while claiming to stand against income inequality. It is a shame that half of Republicans support the Export-Import Bank, but it is telling that nearly all Democrats do so. This was documented recently in the Washington Examiner: In order to overcome the opposition of the House majority leader, speaker-elect, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, and most Republicans on the committee, Democrats got behind a Discharge Petition that eventually Read more […]

The proposed Minnesota high-speed rail system is supposed to connect Rochester and the Twin Cities. If people really need a fast connection between Rochester and the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, then someone would invest in the land purchases or easement rights, build the rail, and profit from the sale of tickets. If there isn’t enough money to be made to support such a venture, then there is not enough demand for the high-speed rail to justify its construction. More importantly, Read more […]

The Chamber of Commerce has decided to start working for the defeat of conservatives in Congress. Others have written before on this blog about the open war between moneyed Republicans and the Tea Party, and especially between the Chamber of Commerce and the Tea Party. Another chapter in that story of battle and betrayal has come upon us as the Chamber of Commerce swears vengeance over the defeated, crony-capitalist Ex-Im Bank. The Ex-Im Bank, remember, used taxpayer subsidized loans to provide Read more […]

The entrepreneurial gift of Elon Musk is his ability to follow the government money and ride the taxpayers to riches—his own. As regular readers will know, I have defended Tesla, a company started by Elon Musk, from Chris Christie, and from other state rulers. But whether or not a company should be crippled in order to help its competition is a different question than whether or not taxpayers should be used to start that company. It seems that Elon Musk is a master at using taxpayer money. According Read more […]

Solyndra was a horrible embarrassment, but the government is ready to start shoveling money at another company. Over at Doreen Borelli’s website, Tom Borelli has written an interesting piece: “Guess which Fortune 500 Company Might Get $259 Million Loan from Energy Department.” Corporatism is blooming like flowers this spring. The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that its revised loan program has given a preliminary loan commitment for $259 million to Alcoa – the aluminum Read more […]

Why are animals tortured by the USDA? To make animal production “more profitable.” Seriously. I don’t believe in animal rights. But I do think that gratuitous cruelty to animals is wrong. “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel” (Proverbs 12:10; ESV). Not everything that is wrong should be illegal. And if animal pain is truly necessary to help humans, I think it is a proper trade-off. Private industry should be left alone Read more […]

The health insurance Giant Aetna is profiting a great deal through the Affordable Care Act. Burce Jaspen writes at Forbes.com, “Aetna CEO Says Obamacare An ‘Attractive Growth Opportunity.’” How nice for him. Health insurer Aetna said it would make more money than originally anticipated thanks to “attractive growth” from new enrollment on public exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. Aetna now expects its 2015 earnings per share of “at least $7.00” compared to an earlier Read more […]

The Elizabeth Warren attack on Barack Obama for protecting the finance industry is a con job. Yes, Barack Obama was bought and paid for by Goldman Sachs and the rest of the finance industry, so her criticisms are true enough in that area. But she is claiming that the Democrats aren’t really like that and that the Republicans are worse. Thus, the Daily Caller reports: Obama’s economic team “protected Wall Street,” Sen. Warren told Salon. “Not families who were losing their homes. Read more […]

People are now recognizing that the Barack Obama economy is a failure. But how much better was Bush? Yes, Bush was able to get away with inflating bubbles further than ever before through Federal Reserve policy. But that wasn’t real economic growth; it was malinvestment. It created the crash that came at the end of his second term in office. We need to remember this because there is a chance that Republicans will use the failure of Barack Obama as an argument that they are trustworthy. Some Read more […]

The most commonly offered alternative to capitalism is not socialism, but corruption, otherwise known as “crony capitalism.” That is when the government gives businesses special favors so that they get either a captive market or subsidies at taxpayer expense, or both. One brand of this economic theory was known as mercantilism. Adam Smith wrote against it. The theory that justifies crony capitalism is that the market won’t work unless it is “stimulated” or otherwise helped by government. Read more […]

The U.S. government’s Export-Import bank is being condemned both by liberals and by conservatives right now. You would think with liberal critics like Ralph Nader and others, Elizabeth Warren would be leading the charge. But no. Far from condemning the mechanism for giving public subsidies to businesses, Elizabeth Warren says it is a great idea. Bloomberg reports: The Tea Party-aligned group sent a letter today to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat known for taking populist stands Read more […]

So, did you hear how workers at the VW plant in Chattanooga recently voted down an attempt by the United Auto Workers to organize? The union thugs were really, really mad about it, but they lost. Oh, but there’s more to the story now. Despite the vote of their workers, did you hear that VW is now bringing in the UAW anyway? I guess it’s just an elite disease to ignore the will of the people and do what they want, regardless of what anyone else thinks. As USA Today reported, In a move that’s Read more […]